/AN: I wasn't going to write Part 4 immediately, but I feel like I owe it since I've been a bit absent. Good thing I thought about what would happen here, for the most part. Hope it's alright, and if not... well, I can always rewrite it later!/
…and one more step to Pris Witless'.
The weight and incessant clinking of the glass bottles was grating and degrading, and had always been. A grim reminder of her servitude and place in society. At the very least, the liquor vendor was sympathetic to Alice's situation. Or pleasant of a person enough to make up for ignorance, either worked. Neither case served to help the situation, really. Alice was locked in the stocks, and Witless had the rope, and could drop the guillotine at any moment. Alice always went down this train of thought, but they felt… heavier, for once. There wasn't a singular reason why. Perhaps it was the sight of the children? Alice wasn't sure which child was a victim of Dr. Bumby and which child wasn't, but it all stabbed her heart all the same. She held the bottles tighter, but instead of the softness of her rabbit, there was only glass. Glass that threatened to shatter if she clutched the bottles too hard. Despite it all, however, Alice found herself anticipating the sight of the Nurse's home.
Figuring out housing for other people was something that Pris had done before, and probably multiple times. Granted, Alice had a sample size of one, but that was neither here nor there. Maybe it came part in parcel in the niche she filled, or once filled, in the field of psychiatry. And so, Alice thought, there was a small but non-zero chance that the same had been done for Levy. That damn elusive man. Out of everyone that Alice could think of, Pris was the most likely to know where he was. Besides, despite being a confidant of Dr. Bumby's, she rarely dropped by the orphanage for his word. It was worth a shot.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
It took a bit of finesse, but Alice was able to shift how she held the bottles to just barely be able to make a knocking sound of some kind. Within moments, the old nurse appeared.
"Alice Liddell! Back with gifts again? Ohhh…." Pris reached out and pulled one of the bottles from the assortment. "A half-bottle of Louis X? I asked for that cognac as a joke, I didn't think they would actually deliver! Especially with your paycheck…" Alice fought back the urge to audibly groan. She didn't need another reminder that she was dirt poor. "Set the rest of them down on the table, I will deal with them later…" Pris turned around, clearly ecstatic about this apparently rare beverage. Alice did as she was told, but kept putting her gaze onto the alcoholic. One opportunity to ask was all she needed, but Pris seemed more attentive towards the bottle, taking a light sip directly from it. Not exactly the first call a typical person would make, but it wasn't like Pris wanted to share. With who? Alice?
"Nurse Witless…" Alice spoke up after she thought Pris calmed down some, "I need to ask you about something important."
"And I need someone to come join me on the roof. Come on! I know you love seeing the pretty birds, dearie…"
Bless the idea of patience. Alice would have stormed off had she not had some of it.
The two made it onto the roof. It would have been a nice view, had everything not looked so… grimy. Pris hobbled over to the birds and tossed them a few grains, before stepping to the edge and gazing off, taking long swigs of the cognac. Alice secretly objected, but not due to the damn price tag.
"Oh, this hits the spot…"
"Nurse Witless, I need to ask you something important." Alice stood, waiting for an answer, but the nurse was too busy quenching her own thirst to bother answering. Did it just fall on deaf ears? Or maybe she was, in fact, going to answer, but the question went through one ear and out the other? Alice had enough of waiting. There may have been a better chance in the past or near future, but this was urgent, no matter how much Alice had to hide it.
"Would you happen to know of someone by the name of Levy?"
Immediately, the nurse spit out all the cognac that she didn't either swallow or still leave in the bottle. She took a good look at the bottle in bewilderment, before glancing over to Alice.
"Levy Graham? That sorry sack of rats that Bumby thinks is worthwhile?"
Well, Alice now had a full name, at least. The inability to hide disdain was a bit odd, though. At least with Alice herself and her former nanny, Pris kept her true feelings under wraps. "I believe so. Is there something I do not know, Nurse?"
Pris set the bottle of cognac on the ledge and leaned against it. "Levy is a bloody pill, Alice dearie. Angus believes him to be smart, but…" She took another swig of the cognac. Couldn't help it, probably, "I can't see it! I- for instance, I was supposed to house him, much like I did for you. Easy enough, you would think! I found a place that fit his every need - very close to Houndsditch, mind you - and yet, what does he insist on? Where does he go, hm? A… An absolute shithole thirty minutes away!"
"Oh dear…" Alice lightly gasped.
"Oh dear? Oh my good god, more like! And never budges. Doesn't change anything when I call him out on it. And when I insist that he is raising his voice and needs to relax? Takes the bottle I hand him and throws it at the wall! Waste of time, I think. And a waste of perfectly good bourbon, too!"
Strange. Given how little Alice knew about Levy, it wouldn't have surprised her… but why would he even do that, anyways? She'd cross that bridge when she got there. For now, Alice just needed to know where Levy wound up."
"So where… exactly does he live now?" Alice asked.
"Why, Alice? He's not worth your time. Shouldn't you be going back to Bumby's?"
"I- please, Nurse, I am just curious…"
Pris sighed, and debated for a little bit. Putting the cognac down and drinking what she could from a seemingly empty bottle left overnight, she went up to Alice and whispered.
"18 Thrawl Street. Room three. East End. Happy now, Alice?"
"Thank you, Nurse. That's all I needed to hear."
"Good. Now, if you will excuse me, I will be enjoying your gifts. And please, pay no mind to that man. If you were…" Pris gestured to the pen of pigeons. "If you were a bird, you would be one of those. A pretty little thing, with little knowledge of just about anything. If HE was a bird, he would be… I… uh… I don't know, a rotting chicken carcass? Get out of here, Alice."
Not exactly a great impression. It would be a lie to say that Alice didn't momentarily think about killing Levy along with Bumby, especially with a testimony like that, but Alice soon stifled that thought. Not only would it still be a nightmare to plan out, but Alice knew firsthand that people had an infinite capacity for deception, whether it was intentional or not. If she could, at some point, believe that Dr. Bumby wasn't using her for anything, let alone for a reason that didn't make anybody worth their salt sick to their stomach, then there was at least some chance that Levy was innocent, or at least had some justification. That latter part specifically. The list of people who had wronged her was… obscenely long.
The place at 18 Thrawl Street was a group lodge of sorts, a ways away from the orphanage, and definitely in a bad part of London, like Pris had said. Though it was like comparing being trampled by horses and getting smeared across train tracks; why bother? It was all bad, only varying in degree. In her eyes, Thrawl Street was just as decrepit and loathsome as… well, anywhere in the general vicinity of the orphanage. Far too much injustice to simply push aside for bigger ventures, but she was forced to do so, hoping it wouldn't have to happen much longer.
Alice took a step in. Nobody seemed to really be there, at least in the lobby. It felt like home in all of the worst ways, terrible wallpaper and wall hangings alike. It was worth noting, however, that it was considerably more drafty and unkempt. The heartless Doctor was not the type to keep wallpaper peeled at the corners and seams. Of course, it wasn't the wallpaper that Alice was thinking about, but rather, what laid upstairs. It was like an inn almost, with numbered doors going up and down the tight halls. Not too far from the stairs was a door with a three on it, casted from a tarnished brass.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
Nothing. Alice was close to trying again, when a voice from inside spoke.
"Door's unlocked."
Surely enough, it was! The inside was tight. Obnoxiously tight. The wallpaper was still ever present, but it was the only thing that made up for the otherwise barren walls. The windows were sealed shut, the curtains pulled in. All that sat inside was a bed, a filing cabinet, and a small cluttered desk, where the man himself sat at.
"Make it quick." He stated.
"Levy?"
He stopped and turned around, an eyebrow slightly raised. It was as if he didn't change at all from last night, his expression and features exactly what Alice remembered from that night. Sighing, he turned around. "I thought we weren't supposed to meet."
"Is that what Dr. Bumby said? I- I must admit, I have been unaware of what he has been tr-"
"Yes…"
"Oh. Well…" A sense of panic was starting to grow within Alice, and for good reason. If Dr. Bumby caught wind of this happening, who knew what would happen next? She was getting prepared to leave and hope he wouldn't remember this, but it wouldn't have hurt to ask…
"If you could, please don't tell Dr. Bumby I was here. Could you?"
Levy grunted. "As if I had the privilege of choice."
It was an odd way to put it, but it made Alice breathe a sigh of relief. "Good. Good…" That was one loose end that didn't have the chance to form. And unlike with Pris, where Alice purposefully made the trip innocuous enough to let Dr. Bumby give her the benefit of the doubt about anything classified, this was just straight up luck. This wasn't coming out of Levy's mouth, and that was final. But what else was there to do here? She couldn't have come all this way just for that… there had to be something else. Alice turned her attention to the filing cabinet. Maybe she could find something in there? But Levy was sitting right there! That being said, his remark about the 'privilege of choice' made Alice feel cocky. Perhaps Levy wouldn't mind if she snooped around his files…
"What's in here?" Alice asked, to which Levy looked up at her for.
"Files. Notes. Scribblings."
"Mind if I have a look?"
Levy set his pencil down, and quizzically looked down at her hands before looking back at her. "Are you going to understand what's in there?"
"Probably not."
"Then go for it. Knock yourself out." Levy grumbled and turned back to his work at the desk.
Without further ado, Alice pulled out the drawer, and began sifting through. The first few files weren't anything too special. A contract of residence, a few certificates… whatever. Impressive, but Alice thought very little of these documents.
The folders after those were a little bit more interesting. Specifically the fifth one, which was so bloated with papers that Alice could hardly hold it without spilling the papers everywhere! These were notes. Hundreds of sheets of paper in Levy's handwriting, detailing all sorts of basic psychiatric practices, and containing too much technical jargon that Alice did not want to read through. Even if she could read Levy's handwriting half of the time, it wasn't anything she could understand.
The folder after those was odd in a completely opposite way. This one only had one piece of paper in it, one that appeared to have been soaked at some point, given the ripples in the paper, and it very clearly was not from Levy. The handwriting was completely different, and the drawing that was on it was definitely in a different style from the ones that Alice would soon discover. Two figures were on it, with arrows pointing to them both. The taller one was labeled as "LEVY" while the other one was labeled as "WILLIAM". A sense of dread then washed over Alice, and she hurriedly put the paper back into its folder, before moving onto the next.
This one was truly something. These had to have been drawn by Levy himself, though possibly when he was quite younger. Each one detailed a specific event. One of them depicted a friendly encounter between a man and a bird of some sorts. The next one was of a battle between the same man and a dozen skeletons, followed by one showing a beautiful landscape. As beautiful as a few shade of pencil gray could show, anyways.
There were others, like one depicting a man surrounded by what she could only assume to be worms, but the last few captivated Alice the most. A drawing of a long-faced, four-legged, winged creature shaded in as much as possible labeled "THE SPHINX OF RED QUARTZ", a man standing over what she could only assume to be this Sphinx on its side, and finally… a hammer. An ornate piece more detailed than the rest of the drawings she saw, but most importantly, this was the only picture in the entire portfolio that had a color different than gray.
Blue.
Harsh blue lines, coming away from the hammer in zig-zagged motions. She was reminded of that night again… the blue glow that fought a losing fight against the red.
"So it wasn't just…"
SLAM!
"Give me that."
Levy reached over and tore the paper from Alice's grasp, before setting it aside and giving her a scowl.
"You're done here. Leave." Levy spoke in an assertive tone.
Alice decided that this conflict wasn't worth fighting, and slinked her way out of Levy's room. She stepped out into the relatively fresh London air, only realizing then how the fumes of the wallpaper paste were attacking her, and sighed. That was definitely informative, though the extent of how it applied was lost on her. At the very least, Alice could confirm that Levy had a place of his own that was similar to Wonderland. Somewhere that she could go, and potentially change his mind. Between the real world and Wonderland, Alice knew she acted differently, and so, figured that the same must have been true for him. Perhaps, it was a version of him that was more agreeable, malleable, or at least not merged in reality, where all consequences there and in their respective dream worlds manifested.
Though Alice could speculate all day and night if her little venture was going to work at all, it was of very little use. The only way to find out if this would work was to get her hands dirty and simply get on with it.